Heru Andriyanto – US mining giant Freeport McMoRan has criticized a lawsuit filed by Papua's Amungme people, who are seeking $30 billion in damages over the company's 40-year mining operation in the region, saying the action lacks legal credibility.
"Previous lawsuits against Freeport making similar baseless environmental and human rights claims have been dismissed in both Indonesian and United States courts due to the inability of the plaintiffs to present facts to support their allegations," the company said in an e-mail to the Jakarta Globe over the weekend.
The statement came after lawyers for the Amungme attended the South Jakarta District Court on Thursday to present their demands: compensation for the loss of their land and environmental devastation.
The plaintiffs said PT Freeport Indonesia, the local unit of US-based Freeport, with the help of government troops had forced the eviction of the Amungme when it started to build the infrastructure for the mine, and that the 1967 work contract that granted land concessions for Freeport was made without the approval of tribal communities in the area. These claims were immediately denied by the company.
"We have reached several land rights agreements with the Amungme and Kamoro tribes, traditional inhabitants of our area of operations, and these agreements go beyond what is required by law," said Budiman Moerdijat, a spokesman for Freeport.
"Some of these programs are ongoing and have provided many millions of dollars in community benefits to villages including housing, schools, student dormitories, medical clinics, places of worship, community buildings, roads, bridges, water wells, electrical power and support for small businesses."
The miner claimed it had established land rights trust funds in 2001 for the Amungme and Kamoro tribes and contributed $27 million to those funds through 2008, with a plan to make contributions of $1 million annually.
Titus Natkime, a lawyer for Amungme, said earlier that the tribe had never received the promised trust money and that the work contract between Freeport and the government should not usurped the tribal communities's rights to their ancestral lands.
"All the agreements were made at a time when the political situation and the state law were against us," the lawyer said.